Double Junk - 123

The strong afternoon sunlight showed that spring had clearly arrived. Seokju stood in the hospital garden, exhaling cigarette smoke. As he watched the smoke drift through the air, he recalled what Ajin had told him an hour ago.

‘Don’t come in, sir.’
‘I don’t want to see you, sir.’
‘Go away.’

It’s not easy to receive such blunt rejection and hatred. Moreover, it’s especially difficult to receive hatred from a gentle and kind boy like Ajin. But I pulled it off despite the difficulty.

Thanks to that, Seokju couldn’t even enter the hospital and was spending time in the garden instead. Myungjin went in to check on Ajin, and after meeting with the doctor, he was going to report back to Seokju about what happened.

How long had he been waiting? The front gate suddenly became noisy, and soon Myungjin and the organization members appeared. Seokju put out his cigarette in the ashtray and hurriedly approached Myungjin.

“How’s Ajin?”

“Oh, sir. Were you waiting out here? It’s so cold. Well, I guess the cold doesn’t bother you…”

Brushing off Myungjin’s concern, Seokju asked again, “How’s Ajin? Is he okay?”

Myungjin let out a chuckle and gave him the answer he wanted.

“He gulped down a whole bowl of rice porridge.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I also gave him the bulgogi you prepared…I told him you had it sent as a side dish.”

“Good, good.”

“I personally gave him the sweet side dishes, and he said he’d eat them well. And he asked me how I was doing, how my fingers were, so I guess he doesn’t hate me.”

“Why would Ajin hate you? It’s all because of what I did.”

Seokju patted Myungjin’s shoulder.

“……”

Myungjin didn’t respond. He just showed a bitter smile. While he was fighting for his life, unimaginable things had happened. His heart felt heavy listening to the other members, including Deokjae, tell him about it.

He felt sad thinking that Seokju must have lost his mind due to his serious injury. The two had looked so good together, like two separate shoes finally reunited into a complete pair. Their relationship seemed completely ruined now, which was disappointing.

But his main feelings were pain and remorse. He felt guilty as Seokju’s underling for not being by his side during such an important time.

Seeing Myungjin’s darkening expression, Seokju patted his shoulder again. The two men began walking side-by-side through the garden, with the other members following behind them.

“What did the doctor say?”

Seokju asked as he listened to their footsteps. Myungjin quickly answered.

“He said although he’s frail, he’s still young so her wound will heal quickly. If he eats well and rests, he can be discharged in a few days.”

“That’s a relief.”

“But he can’t work or get wet until it’s fully healed, or it could cause problems.”

“Got it.”

“But…there will be scars.”

“…Yeah, I figured.”

Seokju swallowed dryly. Imagining the permanent scars that would be etched on Ajin’s wrist left a bitter taste in his mouth. He exhaled a long breath through his nose. Then footsteps approached from behind – it was Deokjae. He came before the two men and bowed.

“Sir, I have a report.”

Seokju raised his eyebrows. “Did you find him?”

He was asking about Kiheon’s whereabouts, which were still uncertain. Seokju felt he could only truly rest once that was taken care of.

“No, there’s still no trace of him. Rumor has it his family cared for him a lot. I’m not sure why he hasn’t shown up. Maybe he fled far away, or maybe he’s lying dead in some mountain crevice or alleyway with the state he was in.”

“……”

“And the police want to meet with us once. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, they probably just want to check our faces or something.”

Seokju blew his bangs upwards with a “huff”. Draping his arm over Myungjin’s shoulder as he scratched his chin, he said:

“Myungjin, you go. Go and treat them well. Carefully ask if they know Park Kiheon’s whereabouts, or if any dismembered bodies have been found recently around Seoul.”

“Me alone? You’re not coming sir?”

“Yeah, I need to stay here and watch over Ajin.”

Myungjin let out a short “ha!” laugh at that. With his arms crossed, he wiggled the only two fingers he had left.

“How can you watch over her if you can’t even enter her room?”

“Is that sarcasm?”

“More like just stating a fact, sir. An obvious fact.”

“I won’t go in the room. I’ll stay outside. In the hallway or garden or…something like that.”

“Hmm. Now that I’ve come back from the dead, I see how you’re acting all strange. I would’ve been resentful if I had actually died.”

Seokju gave a wry smile in agreement with Myungjin’s playful grumbling.

“Yeah, you would’ve been resentful.”

So keep living. It seems like you’ll get to see me do plenty more unsightly things from now on. You can just snidely laugh at me while watching.

*

“Does it hurt?”

“No, I said I’m fine now. How many times are you going to ask?”

Sitting up in bed with her back against the wall, Ajin mumbled through a mouthful of candy. But the worry on Flower Lady’s face didn’t seem to go away. She gently applied ointment to Ajin’s feet.

Flower Lady scooped out another big dollop of ointment from the tube and plopped it onto Ajin’s foot with a wet smacking sound. Feeling the cold, sticky sensation, Ajin scrunched his face and let out an “ugh” sound.

“Auntie, putting on more ointment won’t make it heal faster.”

“What do you know, you fool…?”

Ajin shook the tiny tube, no bigger than his palm.

“Then why don’t they sell ointment in tubes this small? They should sell it in huge sacks! Just pour it all over and sleep in it, you’ll be healed overnight at that rate.”

“Shut your mouth. Eat your candy.”

“I am eating it.”

Ajin made a show of rolling the candy around in his mouth, the crunching sounds emphasizing his point. Flower Lady gave a warm laugh at his petulant child-like behavior. But the laughter was short-lived as she looked down at Ajin’s bruised, purple, and blue feet and muttered sadly:

“Oh……how much pain you must have been in. Oh……”

“……….”

“An innocent child who never once stole anything in her life…what did he do to deserve such an ugly thing around his ankles…?”

“It’ll heal soon. Once it’s healed, I’ll forget about it.”

Ajin stated resolutely. From a lifetime of being beaten, injured and knocked around, he had learned that wounds heal quickly. No matter how excruciatingly painful it seemed in that moment, if he could just endure, once the wound healed he could look back and think ‘I guess that wound was bearable after all’.

It was easier to live thinking that way. There was no point in obsessively clinging to past pains – it was Ajin’s lot to cry and suffer.

Those who had hurt and pained Ajin probably wouldn’t even remember his existence. It had always been that way.

This time would be no different.

Gazing at Ajin’s somber expression, Flower Lady spoke as she wrapped bandages around his feet.

“Yes, forget it all. Forget every single bit of it. Once you’re discharged, don’t even look in President Kang’s direction as you go on living.”

Ajin flinched at those words. It was a name he had deliberately avoided thinking about. But Flower Lady mentioned it, causing it to flash through his mind.

Ajin glanced at the hospital room door. Beyond it was Seokju. He had been sitting in a chair in the hallway all day. The organization members came and went, reporting various things to him, and he would occasionally give orders, but took no other actions.

Sometimes when a doctor entered, or dinner arrived, or when Flower Lady had to leave for tests, he would keep watch with an odd expression that wasn’t quite a glare or tears.

“……….”

Ajin let out a faint sigh. Flower Lady leaned forward, eyes wide.

“What? Is he getting on your nerves? Want me to tell that bastard to piss off?”

“I already told him to leave this morning. But he didn’t go.”

“That crazy fool. I should have shoved something down his throat back then.”

Flower Lady clenched her fist angrily. Ajin blinked rapidly at the unfamiliar phrasing – words he had never heard before with jarring vocabulary.

“……Shoved?”

“……….”

Flower Lady swallowed hard, then firmly shut her mouth. Sensing something amiss, Ajin crawled to the edge of the bed. Staring intently, he asked:

“Auntie, what did you do to the president? What do you mean ‘shoved’? Shoved what?”

“……..”

Flower Lady didn’t answer, avoiding eye contact – very unlike her usual self who would say what was on her mind even to the police or president.

“Come on, tell me. What did you do? Huh?”

Ajin pressed impatiently. He was both eager and apprehensive to hear what Flower Lady had “shoved.” His puffy eyes from crying the previous night were wide open, the swollen lids straining upwards. Watching this, Flower Lady let out a deep sigh.

Finally, as if having no choice, she spoke.

“When you first came to the hospital after slashing your wrist…”

“Yes…”

“President Kang seemed to be trying to hide it from me. But I accidentally overheard some gangsters talking about it. After that, I saw nothing but red. I thought that bastard Kang was dead set on killing you.”

“…….”

“So I grabbed an IV stand and went to find President Kang. And when he came out of your room, I just shoved it right into him.”

“Wh-where?”

“His gut.”

Ajin’s jaw dropped. Flower Lady had stabbed Seokju in the stomach with a glass IV stand. A man who had clawed his way up through gangster life. She was both in awe and terrified of him.

“The bl00d really gushed out.”

“……But the president is still alive?”

“Well yeah. The tough son of a b1tch. I definitely stuck it in as deep as my palm, but he just yanked it out unfazed.”